when the skeletons in your closet don't know when to shut up

Not One Word

By: Spencer DiSparti

The board lay before them, smiling up at them through wooden teeth; the alphabet never looked so terrifying. The girls eyes were transfixed upon it, enraptured by it, with a mixture between fear and wonderment.

An electric excitement coursed through their tremulous hands as they both grasped the planchette. They began to speak in unison; their voices eerie and hollow in the stygian attic.

“Come to us, O Great Spirit!”

The glass eye trembled beneath their grasp, quickly scurrying along the board like a disjointed crab, leaving a trail of letters in its wake.

HELL…O

Their possessed tongues flopped in their little mouths, pulled by invisible strings, and before they could retract them the words spilled from their parched lips.

“What is your name, O Great Spirit?”

The planchette danced across the silent board once again.

A BADD…

ONE.

A nonplussed expression fell on the girls’ faces.

“Were you a bad boy?” One of the bolder girls asked.

BOY

“Yes, boy, you stupid ghost!” The girl said in agitation.

“No Jessa, you don’t know who it is. Don’t mess with it.” The other girl exclaimed.

“Oh Mary, don’t be such a scaredy-cat. It’s just a silly game.”

The planchette moved along the board again.

JES…SA

The girl named Jessa guffawed.

“Oooooo, are you trying to scare us?” She said defiantly. Then a deviant smile slowly spread across her face.

“Are you the devil?”

Suddenly, the planchette began to shake violently underneath their hands. The girls shrieked, trying to free their hands from it, but it wouldn’t budge. It felt like there was a magnet pulling at them. The hideous eye froze and then slowly crept along the board encircling a word that would never have the same meaning again.